Venus Visits Vermont

Candace Whittemore Lovely Solo Show 

Southern Vermont Art Center    Manchester, Vermont

June 11 - July 12, 2005

Venus Visits Vermont

Venus, the Roman goddess of love, beauty, and fertility, can be seen throughout the world captured in the essence of a woman.  Venus is responsible for all variations of love, from emotional beauty to the sensual attraction based on lust.  Just as Venus is known to have descended from Zeus, the governor of the sky and sunlight, beauty is made visible by natural light.

 Being raised in Springfield, Vermont, home to Stellaphane and being a Cosmo at Springfield High, I was raised in an environment full of telescopes and fascination with the heavens.  My father and brothers built telescopes to observe the stars, so I imagine my inspiration for this “Star Party” came from my upbringing in Vermont.

 My philosophy, coming from the traditions of the Boston School, an institution combining Neoclassicism with Impressionism, America’s oldest continuing school of painting, is based on sound drawing, sensitivity to values and an impressionistic viewpoint.  I prefer working from life, and I find sunlight to be fascinating as it contrasts between warm and cool, light and shadow.  Zeus would agree.